Ryan recently wrapped up a blog series for the Wings Blog with the same title as this post. The idea was to encourage youth pastors to teach and motivate their students to a lifestyle of missions, then give practical ideas to get them started. Here’s the outline of the 2 week series and links to each article.
Preface: No Excuses (it all starts here)
1. Teach It!
4. Attend Campus Outreach Groups
5. Partner with other Youth Pastors/Leaders
10. Take Them on a Mission Trip
Now what? It’s important to take a step back and look at the implications of what we’ve covered. As I mentioned in our very first post, this isn’t about adding another program to your list of activities. Your ultimate goal with your students should be to make disciples of Jesus Christ and instill (by example) a passion to be on His mission.
Hopefully you never got the impression that any one of these ideas was jotted down simply to fill a gap on our list. Every singe one was intentional; there are some key biblical concepts providing the foundation for each (some require more critical thinking than others).
If you study early Church History (particularly the pages in Acts), you will likely realize there are certain universal characteristics every body of believers should exude. More on this in a later post.
But for now, here are the basic principles (and how we trust our ideas correspond)…
Dedication to the study of God’s Word, for both theology and life-application.
- Ideas 1, 4, 5, 7
Gathering together (both formal and casual) to share life experiences.
- Ideas 2, 5, 7, 9
Prayer (corporate and private) to intercede for friends and strangers, to discern the leading of the Holy Spirit, and give praise & thanksgiving to a worthy Father for who He is and what He has done.
- Ideas 2, 6, 8
Meeting needs through selfless service and generous giving (with believers and the lost).
- Ideas 3, 5, 8, 10
Being a witness in your community by investing time & sharing the gospel.
- Ideas 3, 4, 5, 10
